A known electrical connector includes an insulating body, multiple terminals accommodated in the insulating body, a circuit board connected to the terminals and a shielding shell covering the insulating body and the circuit board. The front surface of the insulating body recesses inwardly to form a mating slot, and the multiple terminals are arranged in two rows at upper and lower sides of the mating slot. The electrical connector further includes a latch member located between the two rows of the terminals. The latch member has a main body portion located between the two rows of the terminals. A latch arm extends forward from each of two sides of the main body portion. Each of the latch arms has a latch portion protruding into the mating slot. Two outermost terminals in each row of the terminals are grounding terminals. Each of the grounding terminals has a contacting portion protruding into the mating slot and a soldering portion exposed from the rear end of the insulating body. Each of the grounding terminals has a “U”-shaped bending structure between the contacting portion and the soldering portion, so that the “U”-shaped bending structure can be in contact with the main body portion of the latch member to form an electrical connection, or one of the grounding terminal and the main body portion forms into a grounding sheet to be in contact with the other. The two latch arms are located at left and right outer sides of the two rows of the terminals, and the latch arms are in contact with the shielding shell to form an electrical connection, so that the grounding terminal and the shielding shell are electrically connected.
In order to make the shielding shell and the grounding terminal electrically connected, compared with other terminals, an additional process step of forming a “U”-shaped bending structure or a grounding sheet is carried out on the grounding terminal, so as to achieve the grounding of the grounding terminal and the latch member, and then the latch member is in contact with the shielding shell to form an electrical connection between the grounding terminal and the shielding shell. The structure of the foregoing electrical connector is complex, and the manufacturing cost is relatively high.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.